Ending Hunger and Achieving Food Security
Intervention delivered Tuesday, July 7th, 2020, 3-4 pm
Greetings. My name is Grove Harris, of the Temple of Understanding, and I am speaking on behalf of the Women’s Major Group.
The COVID-19 crisis has already created a major threat to food security, with supply chains disrupted, agricultural labor forces at risk, and purchasing power reduced. According to the World Food Program, this crisis could nearly double the number of people suffering from acute hunger globally. 60% of the chronically hungry in the world are women and girls.
We call for urgent action towards sustainable development, push back against corporate capture of our food and agriculture systems, and sustainable consumption and production for the regeneration of our natural resources and biodiversity, the resilience of our livelihoods, health, and food sovereignty.
We demand that feminist men’s, women’s, girl- and youth-led movements are supported, resourced, and protected, in order to drive focused political will and ensure accountability that translates into action.
We advocate for policies, guidelines, appropriate incentives, and sanctions that support regenerative, humane, and sustainable practices, replacement of extractive export models with minimal supply chains, localized production, and consumption, including urban, community, and school vegetable gardens.
We demand gender-responsive affordable legal services, fair land administration, and enforcement and judicial systems that uphold land rights. Women’s equal access to agricultural resources could decrease the number of undernourished people by 12 to 17%.
We support the Secretary General’s call for an immediate cease-fire and a global turn towards humanitarian action. All nations, stepping up, must work together in partnership to address the crucial need to stave off starvation in the wake of COVID-19. We thank you for this opportunity!
Advocacy at the 2020 UN High-Level Political Forum
This year, the UN forum to review progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was held virtually, with sessions webcast on UN Web TV and many events in zoom rooms.
Grove Harris, representing the Temple of Understanding, was chosen to give an intervention for the Women’s Major Group (WMG). The statement, which she drafted based on the WMG’s collective position, was edited and vetted by colleagues including Nozipho Wright, an energy consultant and the regional organizing partner for Africa (English speaking) for the WMG, and Gertrude Kenyangi of Uganda, with decades of experience in community-based work and who has been honored for her work protecting her nation’s forests, receiving the 2015 Wangari Maathai ‘Forest Champions’ Award:
With the help of the women of the community-based non-governmental organization Support for Women and Agriculture (SWAGEN), she has planted over one million trees in the Rwoho Natural Forest buffer zone. These activities have not only contributed to the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change in Uganda but also have generated the new sources of income for local communities through beekeeping, timber harvesting and sales of carbon offset credits. Kenyangi’s efforts have been key to preventing further forest loss from cattle ranching in Uganda Rwoho’s Forest. As reported by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.
Sehnaz Kıymaz Bahceci of WEDO was a crucial support in logistics. Limited to two minutes, the statement had to deliver the concerns, pathways forward, and affirmation of the multilateral process. You can watch the statement delivery online.